Dear Addi:

We are now officially at 40 weeks pregnancy – or one day past the “guess date” that doctors stamped on our file 9 months ago. Your father and I are anxiously awaiting your arrival (as are the rest of the family, friends and colleagues scattered around the world). One of the things I’m recommended to do during this special waiting period is to write you a letter.

What can I say? I am already enamored by you. I am already smitten and in love and I haven’t even seen your eyes yet. I already find myself looking out for your best interest, thinking about your future, instinctually protecting you.

We don’t know much about you at this point, but we hope you will see the world as we do: open to possibility, free from restrictions, diverse, complicated, simple, loving. There will be plenty of time to tell you the story of how your father and I met, how we became friends and finally realized love 3,000 miles from the first hello. But I won’t get into all that just yet.

As your mother, I wish a lot of things for you of course, but perhaps my biggest one at this point is that we can provide you with a deep understanding of all sides of your family, past and present. You are a first of many things for all of us — our first baby, the first grandchild on your father’s side, the first girl grandchild on my side, the first mixed-race grandchild on both sides. It’s important to me that you know stories and culture of both sides, but also that you understand you are new – you represent something entirely new and we fully expect you to embrace this throughout your life. In fact, when we finally landed on a suitable name for you, this was a driving force behind it. “Addis” means “new” in Amharic, and we decided to complement it with “Desta” which means joy.

You are literally our new joy!

As you grow up, you’ll hear many stories about our family. You’ll hear a lot about your grandpa Swesey, who unfortunately passed on much too early, but lives through our memories. I hope you inherit his easy, likable spirit. He was an “everyman” kind of person who always had fun, but never compromised his responsibilities because of it. People always took an instant liking to his warmth and sense of humor. He taught me to stand up for myself and for the working people, to not ever ignore old friends for new ones, and mainly to work hard for what I wanted in life. He also showed me that life should be fun.

Then of course, there’s your other grandpa, who has been declared “the most wonderful man on earth” by many in his family. He defines selflessness, love and leadership. He has led a truly amazing life, full of travel and adventure. And yet, he takes it all in stride as if it’s no big deal. Right now he’s working hard to pass on the educational opportunity he had as a young boy to young kids in Ethiopia who need it desperately to improve their future. His focus on “Hope Through Education” is inspirational to us all.

Your grandmothers — both strong, loving and wonderful women. They just happen to be polar opposites, which is pretty cool when you think about it. I’m thinking you truly will not have any sort of disposition toward assumptions about people because of how diverse your family is on all levels.

OK, that’s enough family history for now. My other secret wish for you is that you discover an innate talent for endurance running. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to force this on you in any way. But I personally have fallen in love with this activity these last 5 or 6 years and have zero talent for it. I just love doing it. And it’s pretty well known that Ethiopian women comprise the most elite and fastest runners in the world. Whether you like it or not, though, you and I will be running through Golden Gate park together starting in approximately 6 weeks. You will be snuggled up in a jogging stroller, but I do hope you enjoy the smell of the eucalyptus trees as much as I do.

I also hope that you never take yourself too seriously. I find that this is a quality I really admire in people and have tried to use it to keep myself grounded throughout life.

The other thing is that there’s this really cute boy named North ….

Oh and I hope you like our smiling faces because you will be seeing a lot of them!

With love and anticipation,
Your mother